"A Time for Change: The Obama Agenda"-Building From The Infrastructure Out
Friday, January 16, 2009SUSIE GHARIB: President-Elect Barack Obama continues to beat the drum for economic stimulus. Just four days before his inauguration, Obama stressed the need for new jobs and more investment in alternative energy. The comments came as he toured the Cardinal Fasteners plant in Bedford Heights, Ohio. He also said it's not too late to revive the struggling economy, but only if the government moves quickly. PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: The way I see it, the first job of my administration is to put people back to work and get our economy moving again. That's why I've moved quickly to work with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American recovery and reinvestment plan that will immediately jumpstart job creation and long-term growth.
GHARIB: Part of Obama's plans to stimulate the economy include $90 billion in infrastructure spending. That will cover highway construction and repair as well as public transportation investments like rail lines. As we wrap up our series "A Time for Change: The Obama Agenda," Jeff Yastine reports that projects both big and small are ramping up.
JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: It's the catchword in the nation's capital.
OBAMA: And a new infrastructure, well planned, worthy and needed infrastructure projects.
YASTINE: And in the state capitals,
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investment in infrastructure
YASTINE: The talk of spending big on infrastructure calls to mind the transforming public works of the last century, the Hoover dam in the 1930s, the first interstate highways in the late '50s. But transportation analyst Robert Poole says, don't think of the stimulus quite that way.
ROBERT POOLE, DIR. TRANSPORTATION STUDIES, REASON FOUNDATION: The stimulus, with hundreds of ready-to go projects all over the country, in every congressional district, is not going to have that kind of effect. It will put some people to work that might be otherwise laid off, or construction jobs and that kind of thing.
YASTINE: But says Poole, projects like those proposed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 1,500 pages worth, are not the kind that will transform the nation's productivity in the 21st century and one look shows why: $20 million for a minor league baseball museum in North Carolina, $8 million for a city pool in Alpharetta, Georgia; $20 million for air conditioning at Philadelphia city hall. When it comes to transportation infrastructure, analysts like Janet Kavinoky suggest that bigger region- sized projects with the focus on reducing congestion may be a better payoff for the nation as a whole.
JANET KAVINOKY, DIRECTOR OF TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE: People have actually gotten used to sitting in their cars. We've adapted and we Blackberry while we drive. We talk on the phone. In reality if you're sitting in your car day after day after day, for employers, the more congestion there is, the less available workforce there is for them. The less available workforce, the less productive they are.
YASTINE: Big picture investments could also mean projects like truck- only lanes like those considered for I-70 in Missouri. It would mean a multi-billion dollar widening of key interstate corridors. But analysts like Poole say it would reduce congestion and save fuel.
POOLE: Those kinds of things really can make a big difference both in terms of the job, but more importantly the longer term effects of making the economy work better by easing transportation, which is really the lifeblood of the economy.
YASTINE: But infrastructure investments aren't for just moving people and goods. It also means moving information and even electricity more efficiently as the president-elect himself mentioned last week.
PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: That means updating the way we get our electricity by starting to build a new, smart grid that will save us money, protect our power sources from blackout or attack and deliver clean, alternative forms of energy to every corner of our nation.
YASTINE: Analysts say the smartest infrastructure investments for America's cities should create flexibility and choices for our 21st century economy. But those kinds of investments take longer to plan and build. They are not, in the new administration's terms shovel- ready, which means the nation may not reap their benefits until long after we have shaken off this current economic recession. Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Miami.
